"We need to send a message that leaks will not be tolerated and
give prosecutors a modern and appropriate tool to go after those
who do leak," he said.

The new Bond bill is identical to the controversial anti-leak
legislation sponsored by Senator Richard Shelby in the FY 2001
Intelligence Authorization Act that was vetoed by President
Clinton in November 2000.

Meanwhile, a new U.S. intelligence policy on unauthorized
disclosures of classified information is pending, the Director of
National Intelligence said last week in a progress report.

"The DOJ and ODNI are ... working closely on leaks issues," he
wrote. "In March 2006 the ODNI issued policies to consolidate IC
reporting of leaks and is now preparing to issue a Community-wide
directive on [unauthorized] disclosures." See (at page 8):

The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition disclosed last week
that former NSA employee Russell Tice had been summoned to appear
before a grand jury investigating the unauthorized disclosure of
classified information. See related background, including a copy
of the grand jury summons, on the Coalition web site here:

The names of foreign countries that are being considered for
deployment of U.S. missile defense systems are unclassified but
nevertheless should be kept secret, the Missile Defense Agency
ordered last year.

"There are many operational and political sensitivities that
require varying levels of protection as we consider possible
deployments," wrote MDA Deputy Director Gen. Marvin K. McNamara.

"Therefore, I am requiring that potential host nations being
studied or considered by MDA for operational deployments not be
identified by country or city name in any form on Unclassified
computer systems....."

The November 22, 2005 MDA memorandum on "Protection of Information
Regarding Operational Deployments" was obtained by Nick
Schwellenbach of the Project on Government Oversight and is
available here:

In an email message also obtained by POGO, an MDA security manager
paraphrased the policy this way: "Information regarding
operational deployments should be treated as 'Secret' for
political purposes and, for that reason, the information is to be
sent encrypted or by SIPRNET."

What is at issue here, explained Victoria Samson of the Center for
Defense Information, is the location of the third site for the
Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which is still under
conideration.

But not everyone got the word.

In a March 20, 2006 briefing by MDA Director Gen. Trey Obering,
obtained by Ms. Samson, three countries are identified as possible
candidates for the third ground-based site: the United Kingdom,
the Czech Republic, and Poland. See "Missile Defense Program
Update" (at slide 35):

[The March 20 Obering briefing was presented at an MDA/AIAA briefing in Washington, DC. It was previously reported by Inside Missile Defense, which noted the identification of the UK as a candidate country for the third GMD site, and also made the briefing available to readers.]

Official controls on unclassified information have mushroomed in
recent years. An interagency task force that conducted an
inventory of so-called Sensitive But Unclassified control markings
recently identified 164 distinct marking systems for controlling
unclassified information, according to Grace Mastalli, who
co-chaired the task force.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the House would require the House
Intelligence Committee to disclose information on intelligence
activities to other congressional committees, as long as such
disclosure did not reveal sensitive intelligence sources or
methods.

"In order to exercise proper oversight, House committees need all
pertinent information and, unfortunately, that process isn't
functioning as it was intended to," said Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ),
who introduced the bill.

"We should not have to rely on the morning paper to learn about
secret government programs, particularly when we sit on committees
that are charged with overseeing such programs," said Rep. Adam
Schiff (D-CA), a co-sponsor.

The Department of Defense recently published its annual report on
counterproliferation, an overview of U.S. government programs to
detect, prevent and counter the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.

See "Report on Activities and Programs for Countering Proliferation
and NBC Terrorism, Counterproliferation Program Review
Committee," Volume I, Executive Summary, May 2006: